13 years ago, Alexander Ljung and Eric Wahlforss launched a music platform that would later transform the lives of aspiring artists. The purpose of the platform was to give creatives a chance to display their musical talent for other users to listen to. Because it gave everyone the opportunity to share their music, it formed the idea of underground rappers within the music industry. As SoundCloud developed and grew through the years, so did the fans of these unknown rappers. Overall, SoundCloud has created some of the most successful artists today and continues to evolve legends in the making. The following gives an overview of some of the most successful artists that you might’ve not known started on SoundCloud. 

Chief Keef

• Starting his career at age 16, Chief Keef became a major influence when it came to the drill scene in 2010. his early music revolves around growing up on the Southside of Chicago. Through this, he created a sense of belonging for those in similar circumstances as him which was just the start of his fame. As he became more known on SoundCloud, his fan base began consisting of followers other than high schoolers in the Chicago area. Moving forward, he now has 476K followers on SoundCloud as well as three songs that have made it to top #10 on the billboard charts.

Coi Leray

• With her father being a hip-hop icon, it wasn’t a surprise for Coi Leray to become infatuated with the music industry. Coi launched her career in 2018 by releasing a single called “Huddy” on SoundCloud. After becoming consistent with her sharing music, she was discovered and signed with 1801 Records and Public Records. Now with 92.4K followers on SoundCloud, she makes sure to always thank her fans for being loyal and posts about how grateful she is to have them.

D Savage

• Originally born in New York, D savage and his family moved to Los Angeles, California where he first recorded a song when he was bored in his friend’s music studio. After posting it to SoundCloud, he realized his gift for rapping when he was only 17 years old. From there, he continued to release singles for his fans to listen to and share with others. Fast forward to today, he is still one of my favorite rappers in the game reaching 193K followers on SoundCloud.

Juice Wrld

• Born and raised in Chicago, Juice World was well acclimated to his passion for music. At age 19, “All Girls are the Same” was released and quickly caught the attention of avid SoundCloud users. The love and support from his fans grew as his song “Lucid Dreams” reached #3 on the Billboard hot 100. Unfortunately, like many other rappers, Juice Wrld passed away in December of 2019 from a drug overdose at the Chicago Midway airport. Now with almost 2.4M followers on SoundCloud, it’s really sad his life taken away from him so quickly.

Lucki

• Originally called Lucki Eck$, his career started at the young age of 16 during his freshman year of high school. After realizing his talent, his friends and him worked together to produce songs that they would share on SoundCloud. After gaining recognition as one of the best underground rappers, he began working with successful artists such as Chance the Rapper, Danny Brown, and Earl Sweatshirt. With 179K followers on SoundCloud, the once unknown artist has a record label signed with Empire.

Lil Peep

• After moving to Los Angeles at age 17 to launch his career, Lil Peep stayed dedicated to creating free content for listeners on SoundCloud. After releasing his song “Beamer Boy”, the young artist blew up and was pushed to continue making music and even went on on tours outside the US. While on tour, his life was abruptly taken away from him after reportedly overdosing on Xanax and Fentanyl. Though he was taken away from us so early in his life, loyal fans continue to listen to his music in remembrance of the legend.

Lil Uzi Vert

• With nearly 3M followers on SoundCloud, Lil Uzi is arguably one of the most successful rappers that started their career on SoundCloud. With his first feature on “Bag and Boujee” already on top charts, he began posting his own music in 2014. With over 400 million streams, his most recent album Eternal Atake reached #1 on the Billboard 200.

Megan Thee Stallion

• Born and raised in Houston, Texas, Megan viewed her mother, a former rapper, as her biggest inspiration and motivator. Now with 314K followers on SoundCloud, she has always been infatuated with the meaning behind lyrics which is evident through her clever cyphers. She began her career by free styling cyphers and posting them on Instagram. After receiving incredible feedback, she turned to SoundCloud to upload her music that she would personally write and perform herself.

Playboi Carti

• Last but not least, Playboi Carti was one of the youngest rappers to utilize SoundCloud platform, starting his music career at 15 years old. At this point in time the aspiring artist knew he had what it took to become successful and SoundCloud gave him the opportunity to do so. His success is evident through the 1.06M fans that follow his SoundCloud as well as the numerous albums that debuted #1 and #3 on the Billboard 200.

Along with many others, all of the previously mentioned artists were enabled to build the loving, supportive, and loyal fan bases they have today. It is evident SoundCloud has gone far beyond what most music platforms do. Now utilized by famous rappers, singers, songwriters, and producers, all creative individuals can share their talent and inspire others to do the same. The next thought this leads to is figuring out who the next emerging SoundCloud artist will be, will it be you?